Sadly a lot of the early locally produced wrestling programs are gone forever because the old video tapes were reused. Back then a lot of the rivalries and grudges were more real. ANd there were also novelty acts like female wrestling and midget wrestling.

It seemed like it was the tag teams that really made the characters of the wrestlers more amorphous. Teams like the Mongol Brothers (Bepo and Gito) had various identities.

Speaking of fans, whatever happened to Ringside Rosie?

jjsaul
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2013-09-24T17:08:25Z —
#3

A friend used to work in a theater supply shop that specialized in fabrics, and was frequented by some of the biggest names in the WWE... she had hilarious stories about the "arch rivals" comparing various spandex like a bunch of bridesmaids picking out dresses.

As always seems to be the case, she said the "villians" were the nicest guys. Mark Henry in particular she singled out as a delightfully funny and polite gentleman.

It's amazing to realize that many of the fans think it's unscripted.

I'm not saying it's not "real" - they are amazing stunt men throwing their bodies into brutal and punishing impacts that eventually leave them aging with permanent injuries.

erg79
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2013-09-24T17:58:37Z —
#4

I've always found it a bit odd that while just about every other previous bit of culture that was scorned as not serious--sci fi, fantasy, comic books, etc.--is now accepted by many non-fans as being of value, wrestling isn't.

apocmondo
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2013-09-24T17:59:53Z —
#5

Chikara a independent promotion has been doing incredibly dense storylines for years and they are only getting more insane, Here is an example.

Eddie Kingston's Backfist to the Future, for some reason, actually backfists Archibald Peck (and Peck only) to the future.

It happened for the first time in his first match in the promotion,which was against Kingston. He claimed that the backfist sent him to2015, where he found the CHIKARA Almanac, and then upon returning tothe past used the info to his benefit...until it stopped working. Hetheorized at that point that he had irrevocably changed the timeline.This was all we heard about it for a year or so.

Fast forward to last year's Chikarasaurus Rex iPPV. Peck (in MixedMartial Archie persona) and Colt Cabana are teaming against Mr.Touchdown and Dasher Hatfield in a Loser Leaves Town match. During thematch, MMA brawls backstage, and eventually re-emerges as MixedMartial Archie. At the time this was presumed to be merely a Faces ofFoley-esque costume change. That assumption was woefully inaccurate.

Peck lost the fall. He then had to leave town, and we saw a series ofvignettes on the CHIKARA Office YouTube Channel about Peck wanderingthe world, ending up in Parts Unknown.

MEANWHILE, someone new debuted for CHIKARA called the Mysterious andHandsome Stranger. It was clearly Peck under a mask, and eventually hewas unmasked, and forced to leave CHIKARA due to the stips of theLoser Leaves Town match.

HOWEVER, his legal representative Barrister R.D. Evans presented acase to Wink Vavasseur to get Peck re-instated. As it turns out, theMysterious and Handsome Stranger was NOT the Peck that lost the fallat C-Rex. When MMA went backstage at C-Rex, he got in a brawl withKingston and got backfisted again. This sent him back to 1885 where helearned cowboy ways, and then eventually got backfisted back to thefuture, and returned to CHIKARA as the Stranger.

The Peck that DID re-emerge from the curtain at C-Rex and thenwandered off into Parts Unknown was revealed to be a future version ofPeck, backfisted back to the date of C-Rex 2012 from some point in May2013. Sure enough, when the re-instated Peck fought Eddie Kingston last month at the Tag World Grand Prix event, Kingston backfisted him,the lights went out, and he was gone. Gone back to C-Rex to emergefrom the curtain and get pinned and wander off into Parts Unknown. Buthe was also BACK as well, in the balcony, observing his ownpast/future AFTER having returned from Parts Unknown. If that makesany sense.

In diagram form his existence throughout time looks like this

Gyrofrog
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2013-09-24T19:53:54Z —
#6

apocmondo:

backfisted

Sounds like the name of a movie. "Karl Hungus in... Backfisted"

crenquis
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2013-09-24T23:26:39Z —
#7

I recall watching All Star Wrestling in the late 70's early 80's -- it was my Sunday morning ritual (after watching Davey and Goliath). The one thing that sticks in my head is Greg Gange and Bobby Heenan in a grudge match to decide who would wear a weasel suit.My favorite at the time was the big bad guy, Jerry Blackwell.

TimH
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2013-09-25T14:46:13Z —
#8

I'm a little confused about the subject of the article. Is it about actual professional wrestlers and their fans or is it about people on forums doing fantasy wrestling leagues?

WearySky
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2013-09-25T17:17:56Z —
#9

Holy. Shit. That is pure brilliance.

I'm one of those kids who thought wrestling was real, and when I found out that it was all scripted, I kinda lost interest. Though, seeing Wrestlemania III "live via satellite" (I cannot for the life of me remember where, my memory tells me it was Maple Leaf Gardens, but that doesn't sound right at all) still stands out as one of my strongest childhood memories. In particular, the Ricky Steamboat vs Randy Savage match.

WearySky
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2013-09-25T17:24:48Z —
#10

Hrmm, it seems like it was Maple Leaf gardens, according to this blog post (referencing only 20,000 people seeing it in MLG)

boingboing
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2013-09-29T16:29:07Z —
#12

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